The photo shared by Merkel's office on Saturday was simply captioned "Day two of the G7 summit in Canada: spontaneous meeting between two working sessions".

Merkel said that Trump would probably retaliate by implementing new tariffs on German vehicles.

Merkel said she expected Italy's new coalition government to vote for the extension of European sanctions against Russian Federation.

During a rare solo news conference earlier Saturday, Trump said he pressed for the G7 countries to eliminate all tariffs, trade barriers and subsidies in their trading practices.

Kudlow admitted to CNN on Sunday that Trump had "compromised on the communique" but changed his mind later, seeing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's appear vindicated after the summit. The president, en route to Singapore, lashed out at the Canadian leader via Twitter, stating that the US will not endorse the communique.

The German chancellor's comments on Sunday come after Trudeau announced that Canada would implement its own retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. Trump had given Canada, the European Union and Mexico temporary exemptions from the steel and aluminum tariffs he first announced in March, but said at the end of May that he would be ending the exemptions. Russian Federation used to be included rounding out the group to G8, Trump has been lobbying for the country to be let back in.

Russian Federation was expelled following Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014, which Mr Trump characterised as "something happened a while ago".

While Merkel, in the picture, can be seen standing behind a table with both hands pressed firmly into its surface atop some documents, Trump with his arms crossed stares back.

"There is no reason for us not to talk to each other, but this is going to be hard", Merkel said, adding that her dialogue with Trump will continue during the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Brussels in July. "Maybe we can help", in a tart reference to alleged collusion between Russian President Vladimir Putin's government and the Trump team to influence the U.S. presidential election.

Others, however, insisted that Trump looks like he's in control of the situation in the photo.